USA - Electro-Voice has announced the release of LAPS V2.2A; this new version of LAPS, the Electro-Voice line array modelling and design programme, is available for free download from the EV website.

Using LAPS, a designer can quickly enter an array design and assess its performance. LAPS can model a full sound system, including main arrays, secondary arrays such as delays and front-fills, and subwoofers.

After the final system design is chosen, LAPS provides full rigging specifications. LAPS includes comprehensive checking of rigging working loads, and will not predict performance of rigs which it considers to be unsafe.

The new version includes a special page for predicting coverage of subwoofer arrays. Proper use of this page will in many cases result in significant bass coverage and quality improvement at little or no additional cost, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

Reunion News - Seventies band The Faces are to reform for a one-off charity show at London's Royal Albert Hall next month. But frontman Rod Stewart will not take part, with a number of guest vocalists due to take his place. Ronnie Wood will be joined by former Faces Kenny Jones and Ian McLagan, with former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman filling in for the late Ronnie Lane. Other performers will include ex-Spice Girl Melanie C, Georgie Fame, Kiki Dee and Mick Hucknall of Simply Red.

Proceeds from the event, to be held on 25 October, will aid the PRS (Performing Right Society) for Music Members' Benevolent Fund. Lane's widow Katy is one of the many to receive assistance from the charity, which helps musicians, songwriters and their families in financial difficulties. "This will be so special for us, staging a reunion for such a wonderful and prestigious event," said Wood. &quo

UK - During the summer recess, Digital Village put the finishing touches to a complex recording and broadcast studio (with editing facilities) for South Thames College, completing the first stage of a major project.

The company had already provided a JBL/Crown sound reinforcement infrastructure, for many of the College's other suites and studios in the building's new ultra-modern wing earlier this summer. This had sensitively been tied in to the College's original 1926 Grade II-listed building in Wandsworth by main building contractors BAM Construction.

JBL in-ceiling speakers and Crown amplification have been used throughout - but it is the complex switching and routing requirements of the 12 studios that have made the College a suitable environment for BSS Audio's new generation of Soundweb London DSP's.

The new wing represents part of an overall £100m investment by

Spain - Optocore has appointed Barcelona-based SeeSound as its new exclusive Spanish distributor. The agreement was confirmed at this year's PLASA Show in London, where Optocore launched its new SANE (Synchronous Audio Networking plus Ethernet) protocol to the world's professional audio market.

SeeSound's CEO Nacho Alberdi, not only has extensive knowledge of the Optocore system, having distributed their fibre products back in 2001 as part of AlberdiPro, but has also worked closely with Optocore's recently appointed international sales manager, Mike Case, over the years.

"Having proved to be the industry leader in audio transport through fibre, with the upgrade of the Optocore system, and the ability to be linked to the new SANE system, we are delighted to be working with the brand again," said Nacho Alberdi.

"Optocore is well known in Spain, and SANE is clear

Puerto Rico - Ricky's Audio Corporation provided the sound equipment and services for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) professional wrestling events in Arecibo and Ponce, Puerto Rico on 5 and 6 September 2009, respectively. The audio system for the events included powered VRX line arrays and dbx signal processing for system control.

Both WWE events featured matches with such WWE stars as the Undertaker, current WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk, and WWE Unified Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho and Big Show. The 5 September 5 event in Arecibo took place at the Manuel Petaca Iguina Coliseum, while the 6 September event in Ponce was held in the Juan Pachin Vicens Auditorium. Both venues have seating capacities of more than 12,000 people.

The sound reinforcement system included a total of 24 JBL VRX932LAP Crown-powered Constant Curvature line array speakers, each equipped

USA - Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn are two of country music's most successful artists and together, Brooks & Dunn have recorded 23 No.1 hits, sold over 30 million records and have won more than 80 major industry awards. Brooks & Dunn are currently on tour celebrating their 10th studio album titled Cowboy Town and their monitor engineer, Kurt Springer, has selected a complete AKG wireless system that encompasses over 30 AKG products for the tour.

Brooks & Dunn have relied on AKG products for a number of years and are currently using a diverse collection of wireless products, including an AKG WMS4500 wireless system, AKG 520 headset microphone, AKG D7 handheld microphone, AKG IVM4 in-ear monitoring system as well as the vintage AKG C12 tube microphone.

"Brooks & Dunn are loyal AKG users and have used vintage C12 microphones for vocal recordings in the past, so when the

UK - When Coldplay's Viva La Vida world touring production moved out of arenas and into the larger stadiums this summer, rental company Wigwam Acoustics were eager to extend the production's Optocore optical fibre network.

With a long history of using Optocore systems in their digital desks, they contacted the German company's international sales manager Mike Case - and soon an Optocore DD32E/DD6NE network had been added to the LX4 Optical Digital Multicore (and FOH I/O) already in use.

Wigwam's digital specialist, Alex Hadjigeorgiou comments, "Huge distances weren't really an issue until the band started playing stadiums - prior to that everything was daisy chained via the FOH position. However, it quickly became obvious that in the big American arenas / stadia the distances would be too great to run the system in its existing format - hence the introduction of fi

UK - Llanelli-based Vaughan Sound Installations recently installed public address and voice alarm systems in the new hospitality areas at Glamorgan Cricket Club's new SWALEC stadium in Cardiff. This latest work was completed in readiness for the first Ashes test to be staged in the city.

VSI was working with electrical contractor AMSER and main contractor Paramount, following their highly successful completion of the first phase of audio installation earlier in the year, during the ground's initial refurbishment programme. For this, VSI provided a house audio/voice evacuation system for the stadium itself.

This second phase saw the original TOA VX2000 stadium system extended to over 300 speakers in order to incorporate the newly constructed lounge and hospitality boxes, plus the revamped offices.

The main technical requirement was that it met .5 of the STIPA speech transmiss

UK - Amidst the challenges of a worldwide recession, theatre consultancy Charcoalblue is bucking prevailing economic trends and expanding. The company has complemented its already diverse repertoire of employees with the welcome addition of four new consultants - James Thomas, Sonya Flynn, Chris Daniel and Ben Hanson.

Each brings their own unique specialist skills to the design table. James Thomas specialises in auditorium design and theatre planning, with emphasis on feasibility studies, concept and detail design. He brings 13 years experience as a qualified Architect and has worked at Fosters, Make and Thomas Heatherwick. Whilst at Foster and Partners he was part of the winning team for the Lincoln Centre New York.

Sonya Flynn's focus is on the planning aspects of theatre design. She brings nine years experience in architecture having worked with Hawkins Brown; Foster and Pa

UK - Following on from an exceptional PLASA09 exhibition for Cadac, the company has reported a significant increase in distribution and sales enquiries worldwide for both analogue and digital products.

The iconic silver Airstream Ronnie Lane Mobile Studio (LMS) parked on the booth (the concept was designed around Ronnie Lane's "One for the Road" album cover), was a major visual attraction at the show, and gave engineers the chance to listen to Cadac's classic analogue audio quality in one of the world's most famous acoustic environments, and perform a direct comparison with the audio performance of the new S-Digital console. Reports from live and recording engineers were impressive, say Cadac.

"Live musical entertainment on the booth from Stephen Dale Petit, The Pretty Things, The Malchicks and Sacha Morgan reinforced the message that despite the technology, it'

UK - Immediately following their headline appearance at Bestival on the Isle of Wight, Massive Attack undertook a late summer tour of the UK - ranging from Academy rock venues to multipurpose halls in the 3,000-capacity area.

Carrying sound production provided by Wigwam Hire - with their visual set again dominated by the creative work of UVA - Robert '3D' Del Naja, Grant 'Daddy G' Mitchell and their tribe (including guest singer Martina Topley Bird, Debbie Miller and long-time collaborator Horace Andy) have shown they have lost none of the experimental flair and challenging production values that characterized their early work, featuring singers such as Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser.

Common to both Bestival and their latest tour was the provision of a Martin Audio PA rig - a full W8L Longbow system on the Isle of Wight and Wigwam Hire's W8LC Compact line array on tou

Liechtenstein - NTi Audio has revealed its new handheld flagship product - the XL2 audio and acoustic analyzer, which the company says offers the combination of a state-of-the-art sound level meter, a comprehensive acoustical analyzer and a powerful audio analyzer. The wide range of functionalities is tailored for Live Sound, Installed Sound, Studios, Service and Environmental Noise measurements, say NTi.

The XL2 provides, together with the measurement microphones M4260 (Class 2) or M2210 (Class 1 frequency response), a precise sound level meter for monitoring of live sound events and environmental noise. The instrument generates the 48V phantom power supply for the microphones and reads the included electronic data sheet of the M4260 and M2210 automatically. This enables faster set-up and ensures accurate measurements, the company says. Additionally the XL2 logs the calibration

Spain - The Teatros del Canal, a new multipurpose performing arts complex in downtown Madrid, marks another triumph for renowned Spanish architect Juan Navarro Baldeweg. The bold exterior statement of angular glass and stone carries over into the interior, where visual aesthetics are complemented in the aural domain by the performance of Meyer Sound's self-powered M1D and M'elodie line array loudspeaker systems in the Main Theatre and the black-box Theatre Configurable.

According to Ramon Pérez of RPS Broadcasting, the consultant on audiovisual technologies for the project, initial plans for all-Meyer Sound systems had been sketched before he was contracted as the audiovisual consultant, and he quickly concurred. "I've worked with Meyer systems in the past, and I've been impressed by the excellent size/weight-to-power ratio, the precise directivity, and the phase coh

UK - Audio-Technica is to launch a new 'microphone audition' initiative on 5 October 2009, with the aim of allowing customers to be sure that they're buying the right mic for a particular situation.

The company's 'First Impressions' programme allows users to trial, free of charge, up to two Audio-Technica microphones (supplied by the company from its Leeds, UK office) from the 40 Series, Artist Series and Artist Elite Series for a two-week period. Musicians and singers will be able to test mics in their own specific working environment - with their own instruments, recording set-up or PA rig - vastly expanding their experience of the microphones compared to a limited in-store demo.

"The extended audition allows real peace of mind, enabling users to perfectly match a microphone to their requirements," says Audio-Technica.

Each of the microphone ranges involved in th

Austria - Studio 44 is a well equipped event location based in the headquarters of the Austrian Lotteries in Vienna. Although originally intended solely for internal use, during the last 10 years it has become a successful commercial venture, with clients such as Ford Motor Company, Coca Cola, BP and Google to its name. The latest additions to its equipment inventory are a DiGiCo SD7 and two SD8s.

"This is the first venue in Austria to have an SD7 plus two SD8s all with Optocore," says Thomas Kappner, technical director of the complex. "We are happy that DiGiCo and distributor TON Eichinger performed the installation and training smoothly."

"Being accustomed to the fixed architecture of analogue consoles and their quick access, we were extremely skeptical about digital console bank switching and menu structures," adds chief sound engineer, Dietmar

Puerto Rico - One of the most popular music festivals in the Caribbean, the Brugal Merengue festival is one of the region's most highly anticipated events. This year's festival drew a crowd of 25,000 people who filled the Hiram Bithorn Stadium to capacity. The event included performances by Latin Grammy-winning vocalist Milly Quezada, Sergio Vargas, and Kinito Méndez from the Dominican Republic, along with Gisselle, Manny Manuel, and Limit-21 from Puerto Rico. Longtime favorite group Conjunto Quisqueya made a comeback for a special performance.

Caribbean Audio of Puerto Ricowas contracted to provide both sound reinforcement and backline for this year's festival. Wil López, former chief audio engineer for Ricky Martin and president of Caribbean Audio, discussed the challenges of the project. "Being a baseball venue, the stadium is an open air facility. As a re

UK / Sweden - In the wake of the formation of Lab.gruppen UK Direct, the new direct-to-market sales outlet for all Lab.gruppen and Lake products in the UK, Lab.gruppen has announced the appointment of Simeon Ludwell to the position of UK sales manager with effect from 12 October.

Lab.gruppen international sales manager Claus Behrens says, "Sim has got just the right profile for this position. He's worked as a freelance sound engineer for several UK rental companies, and also has a comprehensive knowledge of the installation market through his experience with companies such as Autograph Sales and Allen & Heath where he was involved in product management and technical sales, so he's a great all-rounder. We're delighted to have him on board."

Ludwell himself is equally enthusiastic. "Lab.gruppen has a strong range of technically advanced products that are involved

UK - Take a charity founded by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, the expanding Festinho 2009 weekend fund-raising celebration of Brazilian music to support it, and sponsorship from Harman Professional, and you have a recipe for a successful event.

The festival was established five years ago by Rupert Barksfield and Lynda Colborne - as a garden party in a country home attended by 400 people. Since then it has changed its name from the Mini Chill (allied to the larger and long-established Big Chill Festival), and also its site to Kentwell Hall in East Anglia. As a result, this year they were able to cap their attendance at 3,000 (with acts like Jon Kennedy, The Cuban Bros and Penguin Café Orchestra headlining, along with James Yuill and Tom Eno).

In its quest to provide aid for Brazil's street children, Barksfield says the Festinho management

Philippines - ASL Intercom systems can be found right across the globe, in a wide variety of performance spaces - from the biggest concert halls through to schools and colleges. Two of the most recent installations of the latter type have been in the Philippines, at System Plus College in Angeles City and La Salle College of Saint Benilde in the capital Manila.

Systems Plus College is a non-sectarian private school offering a wide range of courses for students. Supplied and installed by ASL's Philippines distributor, Mandaluyong City-based Stage Craft International, a stage communication system comprising six BS15 belt packs, six HS1/D single muff lightweight headsets and a BS181 power supply has been installed in the main college auditorium.

Stage Craft has also supplied a large system comprising 16 BS15 belt packs, 17 HS1/D single muff headsets and a PS279 twin-channel Maste

USA - ASET International Services LLC recently added a range of Bosch DCN Next Generation (DCN-NG) wired and wireless conferencing products to their already extensive Bosch inventory.

Established in 1989 and a member of the Bosch Congress Rental Network (CRN) since 1999, ASET is a specialist in digital language translation. ASET provides its integrated services to a large and varied customer base which includes government agencies, international organizations, professional and trade associations, and corporate clients around the world.

With a Bosch DCN-NG equipment list that now includes over 100 discussion units (a mixture of DCN-DISDCS and DCN-CONFF Concentus full-function models), ASET now requires all its technicians to utilize NG software for system control. ASET also has the largest inventory of Bosch Integrus (wireless language distribution system) receivers in the U.S.

USA - American Music & Sound and Fostex have announced that Fostex recording products will be distributed in the USA through the AM&S distribution network.

"Fostex has a long history of manufacturing top professional audio products and affordable recording gear for project studios, field recording, and broadcast applications," states Lynn Martin, president of American Music & Sound.

"We couldn't be more excited to be the exclusive distributor for Fostex recording products in the USA. We are looking forward to growing market share and continuing to strengthen the Fostex brand."

(Jim Evans)

Germany - With almost four and a half million visitors, the festival of Cranger Kirmes is one of the biggest and most popular German folk festivals. Every year on the first Friday of August, more than 500 funfair operators bring shooting galleries, beer gardens, carrousels, ghost trains and a variety of innovative, high-tech amusement rides to the 111,000m2 site.

In the festival's Steinmeister pavilion, audio suppliers Schallmeister utilised a DiGiCo SD8 digital mixing console for covers band SE7EN CENT.

Schallmeister purchased its first DiGiCo console from German distributor Atlantic Audio immediately after the launch of the SD8 in 2008 for its rental and dry hire business.

Since then, the console has proved very popular amongst Schallmeister's clients and impressed the organisers in Crange with its outstanding performance. This is why owners Marcus Ugljanin and Tim Jansen

USA - Following the untimely death of Monte Wise, the following tribute has been issued by Bosch Communications Systems Division VP Americas, Thomas Hansen:

"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Monte Wise, systems applications specialist, pro sound, for Bosch's Communications Systems Division.

"Monte was an expert, a true professional. Monte's 'golden ears' were second to none in the pro audio industry, and he helped perfect thousands of sound systems across the Americas, making friends everywhere he went.

"A model for others, Monte's care for our customers was never-ending. No matter what the time of day, he went to extreme lengths to ensure their happiness. For many, Monte was a mentor who improved and helped shape their businesses.

"Always on the go, always smiling and always gracious and patient, Monte's hands-on know-how was an

UK / Italy - Outline has successfully launched its Openarray 3D Software. Training seminars were held during PLASA09 on its stand, to train and show system engineers and sound designers the advantage of having a three dimensional software programme that can predict the results expected from either a live performance or an installation of its products.

The intention of releasing an 'alpha' version is to gain the experience of system engineers consistently working in the field. Building on the success of V.I.P. (Vector Implementation Protocol), the idea is to have the engineers contact the company with a "wish list" of additions to the software that would assist them in the future.

Openarray has in its user files at present the three line array products from Outline, namely Butterfly, Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. and Mantas. By the end of this year all the subwoofer products will

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